The bacterium Escherichia coli, illustrated here, moves itself with propeller-like structures called flagella; it is one of the mobile microbes scientists have linked to cargo-carrying structures to form biohybrid microrobots. (Credit: supergalactic/Shutterstock)
In the universe of TV's Doctor Who, the scariest adversaries of all are the hybrid robot-organic life-forms known as the Daleks.
Each Dalek is a living being encased in a robotic shell equipped with lethal weaponry, frequently em ...read more
A model of ancient Jerusalem. (Credit: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr)
(Inside Science) -- In the 6th century B.C., the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, fearful that the Egyptians would cut off the Babylonian trade routes to the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant, invaded and laid siege to Jerusalem to block them. His army destroyed the temple the Hebrew king Solomon built there, and forced the city’s elite to exile in Babylonia.
So began the Babylonian Exile or Captivity, an e ...read more
Participants in a recent trial experienced old memories, vividly.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock.com
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most dreaded diagnoses, and the fear is particularly acute among older people. This complex brain disorder, which usually affects older individuals, can cause many cognitive disabilities, most notably memory impairment.
About 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, millions of loved ones and caregivers are ...read more
MRI scans of patients show patients with Alzheimer's disease. (Credit: Atthapon Raksthaput/Shutterstock)
Scientists are still unraveling why Alzheimer’s disease affects men and women disproportionately. Out of the five million Americans who have it, about 64 percent are women.
Once in their 60s, women are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s than breast cancer, and more than twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as their male counterparts. And when women develop the di ...read more
Join the global movement.
Citizen science provides many ways to explore topics you are curious or concerned about, from anywhere in the world.
Find a project near you using the SciStarter Project Finder. Enable the “near me” feature to find local projects in need of your help.
Below, we highlight projects and outcomes from every continent.
Cheers!The SciStarter Team
Citizen Science in North America
Ian Davies, a 26-year-old bird watcher in Canada, report ...read more
One of the best known of all neuroscience studies is the 'free will experiment' conducted by Benjamin Libet and colleagues in 1983.
Libet et al. asked volunteers to tap their fingers at will, freely choosing the time of each action. EEG revealed an electrical potential occuring "several hundred milliseconds" before people reported a conscious decision to perform each tap.
This "Readiness Potential" or Bereitschaftspotential threatened to debunk the very existence of human volition. Libet' ...read more
As the interviewer and the author of this post, I’ll reveal my bias now: meeting Michelle Neil, the secretary and social media moderator of the Australian Citizen Science Association, was a highlight of the Citizen Science Association’s conference for me. I’m an unabashed Michelle fan. She sat down with me this past March in Raleigh for a wide-ranging discussion of how she got into citizen science, citizen science in Australia, and her future plans for this work. Michelle wrote ...read more
A small segment of the population are born with superhuman sleep needs. They're called natural short sleepers, and they wake up refreshed and wide awake on very little sleep. And these individuals share a few other quirks, too. (Credit: Shutterstock)
What do Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Martha Stewart have in common? They’re part of the 1 percent.
No, not that one percent. Instead, we’re referring to the one percent of people who thrive on far less sleep than what is reco ...read more
A recently captured view of Saturn’s rings shows them glowing brightly on June 20, 2019. Hubble took this stunning shot as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project.
(Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL Team)
Saturn’s rings are one of the most striking celestial features in our solar system. The Pioneer and Voyager probes gave us our first close-up look. More recently, NASA’s Cassini mission spent ...read more
Feeling stressed yet? (Credit: boyhey/Shutterstock)
It's happened to all of us. You're out and about when you notice that your phone is running low on battery. For many, the realization sparks a sense of urgency, and lends new meaning to plans we may have already laid. Edging that battery icon back up becomes a goal of singular urgency, a task that lends a frisson of unease to our everyday lives.
At least, that's what two researchers in Europe found when they surveyed a small group of Lon ...read more
